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What you need to take care of on Thursday, February 9:

The US Dollar ended Wednesday mixed, as the optimism triggered by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell faded throughout the day. European stock indexes managed to post modest advances, but Wall Street settled in the red. Still, US government bond yields remained steady around Tuesday’s closing levels, limiting the USD strength.

The Euro remains among the weakest US Dollar rivals, currently trading at around 1.0725. European Central Bank (ECB) officials were on the wires repeating their hawkish rhetoric. ECB policymaker Klaas Knot said that headline inflation appears to have peaked but added that keeping the current pace of hikes into May could well be needed if underlying inflation does not materially abate.

Across the pond, Fed Governor Lisa Cook said that the central bank remains focused on restoring price stability, as inflation is still running too high. She added that they would need a restrictive monetary policy for some time. Also, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said that the labor market is still very strong and noted that they have more work to do on rates, adding data will determine the path of rate hikes. Finally, Fed Governor Christopher Waller warned that interest rates could go higher than expected.

The GBP/USD pair trades around 1.2070, holding on to modest intraday gains.

The Bank of Canada published the newly inaugurated Minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting- The document had no impact on the CAD as the BOC signaled a pause in rate hikes after announcing their decision. USD/CAD trades at around 1.3430.

AUD/USD is down to 0.6920 as the poor performance of Wall Street weighed on the pair. Finally, USD/JPY advanced, now hovering around 131.40.

Spot gold peaked at the beginning of the day at a fresh weekly high of $1,886.31 but quickly retreated, now trading at around $1,874. Crude oil prices, on the other hand, maintained the positive momentum, and WTI currently trades at $78.40 a barrel.